Orpheus, Pre-Socratics, Exegesis, and the Near East: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Derveni Papyrus

Abstract

This thesis is a holistic analysis of the Derveni papyrus and a survey of the many influences on the text from across the broader Mediterranean world. Each chapter of the thesis separates the Derveni papyrus into a discrete, generic category, and draws fruitful parallels with Greek and non-Greek texts to highlight the seemingly disparate sections of the Derveni papyrus. In chapter 1, I analyze the Derveni papyrus as a piece of Orphic literature. I first highlight the aspects of the text that are considered Orphic and clarify methodological points about the classification of texts as Orphic. I then compare the Derveni papyrus to attestations of other surviving Orphic texts, such as the Eudemian Theogony, the Hieronyman Theogony, and the Rhapsodies. I also analyze the connection between these Orphic theogonies more broadly, and Hesiod’s Theogony. I then turn my attention to the broader Mediterranean to evaluate potential comparisons with texts from the non-Greek world, such as The Kumarbi Cycle of the Hittites, the Babylonian poem Enûma Eliš, the Vedas of India, Zoroastrian cosmologies, and Phoenician cosmologies. Finally, I consider the archaeological context of the papyrus, comparing the context to that of the Thurii Tablets. In chapter 2, I evaluate the influences of Pre-Socratic philosophers on the Derveni text, such as Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Parmenides, Empedocles, and Democritus, followed by an analysis of non-Greek philosophy, in the form of the magoi from the Achaemenid Persian Empire. In chapter 3, I evaluate the Derveni papyrus as a commentary, starting with an overview of ancient commentaries, such as the Alexandrian commentaries, and the tradition of allegorical exegesis. I then turn to non-Greek traditions of commentaries, such as the tradition of Babylonian commentary on the Enûma Eliš, and the Qumran pesharim. Finally, I conclude that this method of comparison is intellectually valuable for discerning basic facts about the Derveni papyrus, such as its date of composition, and for certain facts about the intellectual background of the Derveni author.